Press Release

Career Counselling Fair for School Students

30th July, 2019

Samarthya, XLRI recently organized a Career Counselling Fair for school students in Jamshedpur.

The event was attended by Ronald D'Costa, a founding member of Samarthya and an alumnus of XLRI and Chief Mentor Fr. Francis Peter, SJ, XLRI, along with many professionals and counsellors. Around 500 students and 50 parents of city-based schools took part in the Career Counselling Fair.

Samarthya organised the Career Counselling Fair with the aim to provide school students and their parents a platform to interact with counsellors from different professional background. The event was focused on helping students take an informed decision related to multiple career choices at a single venue.

In his address Mr. D'Costa explained the importance of managing uncertainty in life, as conditions and situations are changing constantly. Therefore, today's youth should be prepared to adapt to new ideas and new techniques. Fr. Francis Peter emphasised the importance of career counselling and taking informed decisions. He said, "One right step in the right direction can make your future brilliant."

XLRI students along with speakers from different professional background attended the event and shared their experiences related to making career choices. The students received advise on a wide range of off-beat career options like farming, sports, photography, forestry.

One of the counsellors and a Loyola alumnus, Tushar Kabir, chose farming as his career. Mr Kabir said that farming was not just a profession but a way of life and being a part of the food and agriculture industry gave him immense satisfaction. He also explained to students how infusion of new technology into farming had transformed it into a proper profession.

Dr. Sanjay Aggarwal, a psychiatrist, told students to think practically and rationally and emphasised on the importance of contingency plans. He tried to put the parent's perspective before students to provide them a holistic view. Abhinesh Chaudhary, Indian Forest Service Officer, shared his experience of following his passion for administration despite being from science background. He listed down the perks of being in the Indian Forestry Services.

The students and parents also had one-on-one interaction with the counsellors. The event also included a psychometric test for the school students that was conducted a day before the event. The test was conducted to analyse the area of interest of the students.

About Samarthya:

Samarthya is an initiative taken by the students of XLRI to help school students realise their full potential by focusing on social and emotional learning. It is the youth wing of Centre for Research, Training, Education and Leadership (CeRTEL) at XLRI.